Symphony of Survival
by Niea-7
Summary: L4D2. Witness the zombie apocalypse through the eyes of each individual survivor; the gambler, the producer, the trainer, and the mechanic. A series of songfics revolving around each character from the game.
1. Boulevard of Broken Dreams

**Now I'm normally not the kind of person who's into all that 'action packed first-person-shooter' stuff when it comes to video games, but I just loved this series. Plus I'm a Resident Evil fan! ****The layout of these song fics will be something a bit like: Verse, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus. But it will vary depending on the song, and which character I'm writing it for.**

**First character up is Nick, and I used Green Day's song titled 'Boulevard Of Broken Dreams' because I thought it suited him well. Get it? _Suited_? Anyway, hope you enjoy!**

Disclaimer: _Left 4 Dead 2 and all its characters rightfully belong to a crew of geniuses at some kick-ass company named Valve. x3_

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**Boulevard Of Broken Dreams**

A brief silence overtook the elevator while smoke from the fire began to slowly consume its occupants. One may even begin to comprehend just how much the smoke surrounding them further emphasized the visible anonymity in one of their newfound comrades; the last survivor to introduce himself after everyone else.

"Name's Nick," he said, "But don't bother learning it 'cause I ain't sticking around much longer."

As if on cue, just after that last sentence, the smoke in the room thickened while the elevator continued its descent.

**_I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known._**

**_Don't know where it goes but it's home to me and I walk alone._**

So much for that riverboat gambling cruise circuit; now he was a suited up gambler and a conman stuck in Savannah in the middle of a freaking zombie apocalypse! On top of that, he had to escape alongside three complete strangers in order to survive. This whole experience would force him to become dependent on their attention to his capability as a team member.

'_Well la-di-dah for you all. The last thing I'm going to do is pledge allegiance to anyone's company, let alone the three of __you__._'

"I've barricaded myself on the roof with ample provisions...but in my haste, I forgot Cola!" said the gun shop owner, "Now here's my proposition…"

After hearing the full instructions given to the group by the gun shop owner, named Whitaker, Nick couldn't help but roll his eyes in disbelief at the oldest survivor standing next to him.

"Nick, don't give me that look," said Coach, "Cola and nuts might be this man's last meal. We can't deny him that. We get him his snacks, he helps us. I'm good with it."

Nick still couldn't believe it. The fact that he had to rely on these people for his _own_ survival was troublesome enough. But having to go and fetch Cola, among other things, before proceeding made his state of destitution seem even _more_ ridiculous. Well, at least he was allowed to keep the free shotgun.

He stepped up to the intercom built into the wall and said, "So let me get this straight, we go get you your shit and you'll help us get to the mall." There was a surveillance camera hanging from the corner of the ceiling above him, Nick turned to face it, "Alright. Okay. You screw us?" He cocked his new shotgun, "And I'm gonna kill you with your own gun."

**_I'm walking down the line that divides me somewhere in my mind._**

**_On the borderline of the edge and where I walk alone._**

"Tank! Tank!" exclaimed the youngest survivor, Ellis, who'd caught sight of the hulking great zombie between the CEDA tents right outside the mall.

"We are screwed." Nick said at upon seeing it.

"Come on, Nicolas!" The one female survivor, Rochelle, appeared beside him, "This is just part of the chaos of what we've started calling the zombie apocalypse." She moved forward and began shooting the fast-approaching Tank together with Coach and Ellis.

"What the hell kind of sign of the apocalypse is that?!" he called out after her.

She didn't hear him, not that he was expecting an answer. They were screwed. The zombies were screwed. Hell, this whole 'apocalypse' in itself was freaking screwed.

Nick joined the fray and was utilizing all the bullets in his shotgun. '_Screwed __up__, more like it._'

"Look out!" Coach shouted.

Momentarily lost in his thoughts, a sudden knock to the chest sent Nick flying backwards before he could come back to his senses.

"AAAAHH!" he cried, and then landed roughly against the wall of a CEDA tent, knocking it over in the process. Groaning after his first attempt at getting up, Nick was sure he had broken something. He swallowed the pain and feebly pulled out the pistol in his possession and continued shooting. Much to his discomfort, the Tank wasn't done with him yet, because he saw it moving towards where he lay.

"Got it!" He heard Rochelle announce. And then he watched the Tank cease movement, collapsing just meters in front of him.

Relieved that the Tank was dealt with before it could finish him, Nick made another attempt at standing up from his awkward position on the ground. Despite landing on the CEDA tent's plastic wall, he was greeted by a harsh pain somewhere on his shoulder.

"God dammit god dammit god..._dammit_!" he struggled, just as the rest of the group caught up.

Ellis was the first to reach him, and stepped onto the flattened CEDA tent holding out his hand for Nick to pull. "You musta 'knocked' your senses to have ended up down there." He joked, "Up we go!"

"Hilarious." Nick answered dully. With Ellis's help, he managed to get back onto his feet.

"So what's wrong with you?" Rochelle asked upon reaching them.

Nick felt his shoulder where the pain from before was hurting and simply said, "Nothing much."

"I knew you'd be okay." She said.

Coach held out his pain pills, "You make sure you use this now."

Nick gave a reluctant nod in thanks and took them from him. Honestly, he didn't actually bear an irrational resentment towards these guys. And he'll admit, he was thankful that they were looking out for him. However, if they were helping him today, they'd be wasting their time if they continued helping him tomorrow. Put simply, on HIS account, what kind of loser would actually want to stay alive in a world full of zombies?

**_Read between the lines. What's fucked up and everything's alright._**

**_Check my vital signs and know I'm still alive and I walk alone._**

"Aw, hell. I coulda got my picture taken with Jimmy Gibb's stock car? I HATE this apocalypse!"

Ellis was admiring the red, blue and white posters on the walls of the safe house deep inside the mall.

"Oh, hey! Jimmy Gibbs!" Coach was, too.

Upon seeing the man in the posters, Nick said "I'm getting sick of looking at this guy's face."

"Well trust me - in these parts, he's as famous as...Elvis." Coach stated, "Or the President."

"Really? 'Cause he looks like an asshole."

Ellis made a face at Nick's comment, and Coach slowly turned to where Nick was standing; both of them unimpressed with his skepticism.

"Mister," said Coach, "I don't think I like your attitude."

"Whatever."

**_I walk alone. I walk alone._**

These people didn't get it. They didn't understand anything. Working together – the word _together_ wasn't really part of his vocabulary – demonstrating loyalty, asking him for favors…why would you ask something of someone who has lost everything? He had nothing to give them, he didn't want them to ask for anything.

'_That way…you won't lose anything. You can go on without being hurt._'

It had only been half a day. And it was clear that these strangers were eager to survive, and that they wanted him to survive along _with_ them. However…

Nick had learnt and experienced enough from being a 'drifter of the underworld'.

Don't trust anyone. That was his motto.

**_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me. My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating._**

**_Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me._**

**_Til then I walk alone._**

The new escape plan out of the mall was a success. But just when things were starting to look up, the survivors were now stranded on a deserted highway weighed down by abandoned cars that went on for miles.

"Sorry, folks." said Ellis, "This car is capable of miracles, but it can't drive over twenty miles of parked cars. I think we're walkin'."

"God DAMN you, Jimmy Gibbs Junior!" Nick cursed.

Ellis glanced at him, "Now that was uncalled for. Serious."

"The question is, where do we start heading now?" Rochelle asked, having no interest in their little dispute.

Coach started walking a few steps ahead of the group.

"Look!" he exclaimed, and turned left to climb onto the roof of a nearby car, "Well now, if we're picking directions, I say head towards the spinning lights."

"You don't mean…" Ellis began, and then ran forward to stand on the roof of the car next to Coach. He squinted his eyes in the same direction Coach was facing, and exclaimed, "Dude, they got the park all lit up!"

"What park?" Nick asked.

"My guess is the one on that sign over there." Rochelle indicated the highway billboard sign advertising a Whispering Oaks amusement park. "Alright, that looks like our next stop." She patted Nick's shoulder as a sign to follow, before walking past him, reloading her submachine gun.

Nick cringed slightly from both the previous shoulder injury and at realizing their next objective, '_You have __got__ to be kidding me._'

The highway itself, although deserted at first, happened to be infested with zombies, and the group continued to advance past the abandoned cars. As they travelled, Coach took notice of the direction in which all the cars were facing, aside from all the zombies.

"We ain't the only ones that thought to take this short-cut." he said, "Looks like people were heading towards Whispering Oaks."

Ellis had just beheaded an attacking zombie using his axe while he digested what Coach had said. His face fell.

"Aww…" he uttered sadly, realizing what Coach meant, "All the people who never made it to Whisperin' Oaks…"

Nick fired a series of shots at the zombies that lurched after him, before casting a sideways glance in the direction of the lights. He remained quiet; being in the deserted highway full of abandoned cars and dead people – zombies included – drove him to consider their chances of getting rescued.

He was also reflecting on the possibility of how he could make it this far on his own.

**_I walk this empty street, on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams._**

**_Where the city sleeps and I'm the only one and I walk alone._**

"WOW." said Nick, upon noticing the burned bodies in the pool at a motel in the highway, "These people SUCKED at high diving."

"Look at those poor people." said Ellis, "All they wanted to do was go for a swim."

"Well, at least they weren't diving in the shallow end." Rochelle stated.

Nick raised an eyebrow at her, "And how is that better than being burned alive…and getting dumped into a pool?"

"That's the whole idea, isn't it?" she replied, "Well, I guess now that you mention it, it is rather ironic. The pool doesn't even have water in it."

"My point exactly." Nick said.

"Come on y'all, let's get a move on!" called Coach from the other side.

They all followed him into the motel where they encountered more infected and were able to collect some more supplies on the second floor level.

"You sure you're alright, Nick?" Ellis asked, concerned that one of his team mates was reacting to an old injury made new.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Nick scoffed in response.

"I thought your shoulder got better after we left that mall behind, but it looks like it came back after you fell right on it when that Smoker outside grabbed your foot."

Nick groaned, remembering the incident and being dragged awkwardly along the floor, "Don't worry about me, Ellis. I'll be fine."

As if he didn't hear him, Ellis took off his own med-pack and held it out, "Here man, take it."

Nick gestured that he didn't need the offer, "No. I told you, I'll be fine."

"I'll be even finer!" Ellis replied, then grabbed Nick's arm and shoved the med-pack into his hand, "You can repay me later."

"I'd rather not." Nick grabbed Ellis's arm and shoved the med-pack back into his hand, "I don't like owing favors." He turned away.

"Well, aren't you a stubborn mule." Ellis remarked as a joke somewhat.

Nick stopped mid-walk, and turned his head to glare at him.

"Who's being a stubborn mule?" Rochelle asked with a hint of a smile in her voice as she walked into the room with Coach at her side.

"He is." Ellis crossed his arms while he specified Nick, "Says he don't healing even though I saw him havin' trouble earlier."

"What? Is your shoulder acting up again, Nick?" Coach asked in an uneasy tone.

"_No_." Nick replied firmly, and then moved past them, leaving the room.

"Hold on!" Rochelle called out from behind him, "Nick, we need you to stay in top condition!"

"We don't want you struggling when something bad happens!" Coach's voice.

"Just let me heal ya!" Ellis hadn't given up.

Nick spun around to face all of them, very irritated.

"Anyone in the camp die here?" he asked impatiently, "No? Then let's move out."

He began trudging a distance ahead of the group, picking off any infected that stood in his way.

**_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me. My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating._**

Why were they suddenly so concerned for his survival? Could he really trust them with his life? How did he suddenly get caught up in all this? Why was the world suddenly full of zombies? It had been more than a day, and Nick was still having trouble coming to terms with the whole situation.

Nick was naturally self-reliant, and was not a man so easily fazed. Cheating in back-alley card games, getting involved with the roughest, toughest and most powerful gangland patrons, his profession as a conman, and on top of that, a short-term marriage to possibly the most foul woman on the planet…you'd think he'd be screaming for help after a such an experience.

Now he was experiencing the zombie apocalypse, and for the first time ever, Nick had come across a problem that couldn't be solved with his usual single-handed methods. Maybe he _would_ eventually accept that he was now part of a team and not surviving on his own, or maybe he never would.

'_But the sooner we find rescue, the better._'

After all, Nick had learnt and experienced enough from being a 'drifter of the underworld'.

**_Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me._**

**_Til then I walk alone._**

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**Thanks for reading! ****I'm sorry if I made him sound like too much of an assclown throughout, I know he isn't like that all the time. For that reason, I only did the first two campaigns. I believe that as the game progresses, it's revealed deep down that he's really a big softie, like Coach! And I don't mean that physically...**

**Rochelle is going to be the next character I'll be doing, so stay tuned.**


	2. One Step At A Time

**Thank you so much for all the positive feedback! I love getting reviews, especially with reference to the parts of the story I worked so hard on. So, just as Ellis would say, 'Much obliged'.**

**And now for what you've all been waiting for, Rochelle's very own songfic! At least the one that _I_ wrote, anyway. The song I used is titled 'One Step At A Time' by Jordin Sparks. I thought this song did best at describing her experience, because the lyrics were simply...well, read on and let me know what you think! To make a link with Nick's chapter, I've included a mention of another Green Day song in this too. I wonder if y'all can find it?**

Disclaimer: _Left 4 Dead 2 and all its characters rightfully belong to a crew of geniuses at some kick-ass company named Valve. x3_

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**One Step At A Time**

While the survivors forced their way out of the burning building, one could imagine the blatant disbelief present in the thoughts of the one female member trailing closely behind her male comrades moving forward in front.

'_Okay. Now I'm killing zombies..._'

This was supposed to be her big break; the ultimate stage in her career. The one opportunity she needed to take in order to receive the recognition she knew deserved. But then, this 'big break' soon transformed into one big 'outbreak' of chaos beyond her control.

**_Hurry up, and wait. So close, but so far away._**

**_Everything that you've always dreamed of, close enough for you to take._**

**_But you just can't touch._**

People started calling in sick, and the office became lacking of decent employees. After finally being offered the chance to produce a real news story, it just made her day. Everything that she'd been hoping to achieve could finally be resolved. This was, without a doubt, the perfect news story that would free her from the usual coffee delivering and cable lugging.

But Rochelle never thought that she'd be fighting for her life against the living dead, alongside three other strangers she'd just met on the same day. Could they even begin to understand what she had to put herself through just to travel to this part of Georgia? She was so sure of herself before now.

'_Reports were really fragmented...CEDA __never__ told anyone it was this bad._'

They were now inside a safe room restocking on supplies and preparing themselves for the journey through the streets towards the evac center located in a nearby shopping mall. To no one in particular, Rochelle asked in a nonchalant manner, "Why did I have to get stranded in Savannah?"

"Man, Savannah's awesome!" The one named Ellis answered, "I'll show you the sights on the way to the mall."

"Well," she paused, "Okay…I guess."

**_You believe, and you doubt. You're confused, you got it all figured out._**

**_Everything that you've always wished for…could be yours, should be yours, would be yours._**

**_If they only knew._**

Rochelle loved to communicate with the world, so journalism was just the right answer for her. She became interested in becoming a news producer, and although she managed to get a job in a big-name news station, no one in the office really paid much attention to her. Whenever she made an effort to take part in solving a serious problem in her workplace, or volunteered for a high end news position, they all but turned her down at the drop of a hat.

After leaving the safe room outside the hotel, they passed a road sign flashing 'CEDA EVAC/LIBERTY MALL'. And much to Rochelle's relief too, because now she could be certain that they were heading in the right direction.

"Ugh, I hear a hunter." she muttered drearily.

The familiar growl of the hooded infected could be heard in the surrounding area of the group of survivors. Rochelle reloaded her machine gun as they cautiously moved toward the entrance to the next building by a police car parked outside it. The one who called himself Coach was leading, and had just passed the final hedge towards it when a shadow pounced on him.

"HOODIE DUDE!" Ellis barked.

Coach shouted as it began to claw at him. Adrenaline consumed her; Rochelle ran at the creature and heaved her shoulder into it. It went sprawling, she pulled her machinegun with both hands and began to shoot it. The creature staggered, hopped, until –

A person behind her fired at the hunter's head, sending its body crashing against the fence in front of the nearby abandoned car and finishing it. Rochelle turned around in time to see Ellis and the 'well-dressed survivor' named Nick emerge down this end of the road. She along with them rushed over to see if Coach was okay.

"Don't worry, I'll get your ass out of this mess." said Nick, helping Coach back onto his feet.

"Hey, good shootin' Tex!" Ellis said to Rochelle, upon seeing the dead Hunter.

"Thanks, I didn't get the final hit though." She replied, then noticed smoke coming from the barrel of Coach's magnum, "Pay regards to Coach for that." She smiled.

"I am too old to be feeling this hot and bothered." Coach huffed.

Rochelle understood his pain. The zombie apocalypse was so intense; she couldn't recount any previous experience that had made her feel more distressed than today. There were times when she wanted to just give up because she simply couldn't take it anymore.

Her smile faded as her mind wandered over to the elevator conversation they all had earlier, when Nick said he wasn't sticking around for much longer, and began to speculate her own capabilities based on the same thing.

**_You wanna show the world but no one knows your name yet. Wonder when and where and how you're gonna make it._**

**_You know you can, if you get the chance. In your face as the door keeps slamming._**

**_Now you're feeling more and more frustrated. And you're getting all kind of impatient, waiting._**

"Somebody grab the cola!" Nick demanded at no one in particular.

The alarm bells were ringing both inside her head and within the Save 4 Less store as Rochelle dashed through the entrance past all the counters and shelves towards the back where she believed the cola might be. Aware of the zombie shooting madness taking place outside, she struggled to keep an eye on her objective, even though she knew the others were taking care of it. By the time she reached the back of the store, the first wave was already dealt with, but a dull roar in the distance reminded them all that it wasn't over yet.

"I got Whitaker's cola, let's go!" Rochelle exclaimed soonafter grabbing the six-pack off the floor beside a broken freezer.

With the alarm bells still going off, as well as the gunfire and zombie noises happening outside, Rochelle pushed herself to ignore the ringing in her ears from the sound collection and hurried back to the front of the store where the chaos was still happening. The place was littered with piles of 'dead zombies' – if one could call it that – which she stepped between with the others at her side.

The waves of zombies seemed endless on the supposedly short trip back to the gun shop owner.

"Gr'naade!" Coach announced.

A pipe bomb was thrown, and that seemed to make their numbers decrease, but only just enough so Rochelle could make an easy advancement to the stairs – where a Smoker happened to sidetrack her.

"SMOKER'S –" she began, just as the cola slipped through her fingers, while the special infected continued to reel her in. "– GOT ME!"

"Hold on, I'm coming!" She heard Ellis call out.

The sound of a rifle bullet passed her ears multiple times even as the Smoker came closer to having her dangle from the balcony where it stood. At the sound of a rasping cough above her that signaled its death, she fell to her knees, the tongue loosening as she made contact with the ground.

"Ah!" she let out, and glanced up to see her rescuer running toward her.

"You alright there, Ro?" he asked worriedly when he saw her on the ground.

"I'm okay, thanks." She said through a relieved sigh.

"Put the cola in the slot!" the gun shop owner called out.

Rochelle scrambled to her feet, her head darting in all directions. Where was that cola? Her eyes widened as she glanced up in the direction of Whitaker's message. There, she saw Nick with the package in hand and delivering it to the gun shop owner's hiding place.

'_How'd he get up there so fast?_' she wondered.

***BOOM***

The deafening noise of an explosion interrupted her thoughts and the ground shook beneath all of them for a moment. After that, the hordes ceased, and the chaotic atmosphere suddenly became still.

"Well, when he says he's going to clear us a path, HE CLEARS US A PATH!" Coach exclaimed on the far end.

The other three made their way to the road where he was standing, and noticed that the tanker which had been blocking their way earlier had been 'blasted' in half.

"I gotta respect that!" Nick remarked.

"Next stop, Liberty Mall." Rochelle stated after him.

Just then Ellis was reminded of something and set off on one of his long-winded stories while they started proceeding through the tanker.

"Man, I love malls. I do." He said, "Once I was in this mall, up in Atlanta, and these guys were dancing for like money and stuff and my friend Dave and I was all – "

"Ellis, is now the best time?" Nick asked, clearly not interested in hearing the rest.

"Okay." Ellis replied simply.

Rochelle stifled a laugh just as Coach shook his head in disbelief. She often marveled at how the young'un managed to maintain a lighthearted mindset and a solid outlook on the situation around them, despite everything. Even with such liveliness, the boy still managed to take control of an accuracy-dependent weapon like the sniper rifle, as was demonstrated when he rescued her earlier.

Ellis happened to look her way as she pondered this, and smiled right back at her. Rochelle – feeling her face flush – found herself quickly glancing back at Coach, who was wrapping a few cuts on his arm with some gauze.

"Crazy sons'a bitches messin' me up." He protested.

Rochelle thought of a way to lift the old man's spirits, "I've got a plan: Let's kill all the zombies. Sound good?"

"Sounds like a plan." Coach agreed.

Behind them, Ellis and Nick viewed their female colleague with impressed looks on their faces.

**_We live and we learn to take one step at a time. There's no need to rush._**

**_It's like learning to fly, or falling in love._**

**_It's gonna happen when it's supposed to happen, and we find the reasons why._**

**_One step at a time._**

They had to venture deeper inside the mall if they thought they could find the Evacuation Center in question. And as if the nightmare was following them wherever they went, zombies had overrun the inside of _this _place aswell.

While in search of supplies within the hallways, Rochelle wandered into one of the bathrooms where she found a container of pain pills sitting in a wall urinal built for males. She snickered to herself a little at the thought of finding them in such a location, as well as the fact that she was inside the men's room to begin with.

She turned to leave, and that's when her flashlight shone onto something fairly peculiar. There was a pile of zombie bodies lying near the back wall, though there wasn't any evidence that they had been shot at. Their corpses appeared less…_zombiefied_ compared to the hostile ones they encountered on the way here, and showed what looked like an incomplete conversion from human to zombie.

Rochelle lifted her hand to her mouth in disgust. This wasn't the first time she saw something like this, but one would always reach their limit eventually, no matter how strong-minded one was.

'_These people were…unable to live through the transformation._'

"Find anything?"

She spun around and shone her flashlight at the figure standing at the bathroom doorway; it was Nick.

"Yeah, I got these pills." She said while trying to hide the strain in her voice, and indicated the plastic container strapped to her belt.

Nick walked into the room, shining his torch up and down the walls, searching. Not seeming to notice the pile of bodies at the back, he pushed open a door to the lone toilet cubicle.

"Good find," he said, "Looks like there's nothing else here."

"Then let's move." Rochelle responded, and was about to walk to the exit when a zombie stopped in the doorway. Remembering the pile of bodies behind her, she hesitated with her gun.

Nick on the other hand had heard the low growl coming from the front, stepped back from the toilet cubicle, and blasted a shotgun bullet to the stomach just as it lurched at them. The creature stumbled, then glanced down, hands lifting to its gaping wound, before falling forward to the ground.

"Are you okay?" he asked, turning his head back to the woman standing behind him.

Considering what she witnessed earlier, Rochelle had been taken aback by the recent kill, "I'm…"

"Hey, what's the matter?"

The apparent concern in his voice – a rarity for someone like Nick – brought Rochelle back to her senses, and convinced her to feel guilty for making him worry. She met his gaze.

"I'm fine, Nick." She said firmly, though her voice was shaking somewhat.

Nick studied her for a moment; it was hard to read her facial expression in this dark room, so he was unsure whether or not to believe her. He lowered his gun to his side and went back to facing the exit, "Well alright, let's start heading back."

As Nick was just going to begin walking, Rochelle – who had her hand to her mouth in dismay – laid her remaining hand on his shoulder from behind. Nick tensed as she leaned her forehead on his back, unable to catch herself.

"Rochelle?"

"Oh, god…" she managed to say, "Is this ever going to be over?"

They both stood there in silence, neither of them willing to move. Nick mulled over what answer he should give, and glanced down at the recently downed zombie in front of him.

That's when he finally answered, "Just a little longer, we'll make it out of this shithole."

**_When you can't wait any longer, but there's no end in sight._**

**_It's the faith that makes you stronger._**

**_The only way we get there, is one step at a time._**

The group of survivors arrived in the designated area of the mall only to find the evac center to be empty. Well, so much for the evacuation plan. With no where else to go, they all piled into the nearby elevator down to the floor below.

"CEDA's not gonna save us. Any ideas?" Nick asked when they began descending.

"Let's go find Jimmy Gibb's stock car." Ellis suggested, "We get that thing gassed up, we can drive outta here."

"Well, beats my idea. Staying here and dying in the mall." Nick replied.

"Okay." said Rochelle, "So plan A is we find this race car..." she glanced at Nick, "Plan B is we stay in this mall and die."

"Something tells me the gas tank will be empty." said Coach, "So as soon as those doors open, everybody's gotta haul ass."

Once they'd reached the bottom floor, they all rushed about the area scavenging every gasoline tank in their sights.

"This is...such an honor." Ellis was muttering to himself while filling up the stock car with gas, "Jimmy Gibbs Junior, I will do this for you."

Rochelle, who was still in a state of doubt upon discovering the empty evac center, stated "I still can't believe CEDA lied to us about all this." She turned to the 'well-dressed survivor' fighting off the zombies alongside her, "What do you think?"

Nick shrugged, "I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies brought on by CEDA. And according to Ellis," he paused, "This is the dawning of the rest of our lives on holiday."

She stopped shooting momentarily, thinking, in response to what he said.

"Car's gassed up people, let's move!" Coach ordered.

"Ready, sweetheart?" Nick asked in a teasing manner.

Rochelle met his gaze and realized her heart had skipped a beat shortly after he asked her that. Sweetheart? This apocalypse must've driven her to start hearing things. Although…nah, it was definitely the apocalypse, right?

"I was _born_ ready." She smiled, and brushed past him as she headed towards the escape vehicle.

**_Take one step at a time. There's no need to rush. It's like learning to fly, or falling in love._**

So what if she'd been ignored at her last news job? Compared to all that, today, she was working in a whole new job completely different from the one she was originally promoted for. A whole new workplace together with a whole new team of co-workers; who never really complained when they went to the trouble of looking out for her. What an unusual 'career path' _this_ was for all of them.

Today she would eventually learn to adjust to the disastrous situation before her. Best of all, hanging around these _three wise men_ meant that she wouldn't have to go it alone. Soonafter closing the saferoom door to the trailer outside the Whispering Oaks amusement park, she faced all of her fellow 'co-workers' and remarked happily, "Thanks to you guys, I am the baddest woman alive!"

**_It's gonna happen when it's supposed to happen, and we find the reasons why._**

**_One step at a time._**

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Goodness! Did that seem rushed? I'm sorry if it did, I just wanted to put this up so badly. Rochelle is truly deserving of more love in this fandom. Thanks for reading, I hope I did enough to impress!

**Coach is going to be the next character I'll be doing, so stay tuned.**


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